‘Forever’ series review: Young hearts run free in this timely and timeless love story

Based on Judy Blume’s controversial 1975 novel, this story of teenagers finding love while negotiating the peaks and pitfalls of growing up in 2018 Los Angeles is brimful of good feelings

On New Year’s Eve, Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.), a high school senior, decides to go with his friend, Darius (Niles Fitch), to a party where he meets Keisha (Lovie Simone). The two knew each other as children and sparks fly. Justin and Keisha meet the next day for shopping and a movie. Things are going well, till they are not, and they end with Keisha blocking Justin.

Justin manages to get through to Keisha after begging her friends on socials to get her to reconsider and hijacking his driving instructor’s car to visit Keisha in her school. Just as Keisha relents, Justin’s mum, Dawn (Karen Pittman), confiscates his phone as punishment for the stunt he pulled with the car. As the two go through the peaks and troughs of love and intimacy, there are also college admissions to think of.

Both Keisha and Justin are athletes — Keisha in track and Justin in basketball. Keisha’s mum, Shelly (Xosha Roquemore), and Justin’s parents, Dawn and Eric (Wood Harris)—a talented chef and easy-going father—have big plans for their children involving athletic scholarships. Though Keisha is sure she wants to go to Howard University, and works towards her admission, Justin is not so sure of the future that his parents have charted out for him.

While Dawn and Eric have set their sights on Dawn’s alma mater, Northwestern, Justin, who has struggled with ADHD, and loves making music, is undecided even after getting a full scholarship at Northwestern. There is also Keisha’s ex, rising basketball star Christian (Xavier Mills), whose actions forced Keisha to change schools, to consider. And there’s prom.

As much as Forever is about first love and growing up, it is also about parenting, about trusting your children enough to let them make their choices. Judy Blume’s 1975 novel, Forever…, was controversial for its frankness while dealing with teenage sex. There are call-backs to the novel including Keisha’s best friend, Chloe’s (Ali Gallo) aunt in Martha’s Vineyard being called Kate who is married to Mike. The teenagers in Blume’s novel are called Katherine and Michael and it is nice to imagine the two got together after all!

Forever, apart from talking about teenagers, explores the difficulties of being Black in America. Dawn tells Justin, “you are a black man in America, you have to be undeniable,” or there is Eric telling Justin as he takes his new Jeep for a spin, how he should behave if an officer flags him down. Code switching and micro-aggressions are very much a part of their lives, as Keisha comments.

The clothes are lovely and Keisha’s nails and braids are eye-catching. Justin’s younger brother, Jaden (Marvin Lawrence Winans III), gets most of the funny lines. This sharply written modern-day Romeo and Juliet story with its likeable leads, and believable characters, reminds us of the terrible beauty of being young and restless.